D.B.A. Barbecue’s original location at 1190 North Highland Avenue will close after 15 years later this month. The restaurant’s last day of operation is Sunday, February 25, as first reported by Tomorrow’s News Today. The restaurant announced its closure via an Instagram post on Tuesday, February 13.
Co-owner Matt Coggin told Eater Atlanta he’s focusing on his fast-casual concepts. The first, D.B.A. Barbeque’s Chastain outpost with counter service and a smaller menu, took over the former Greater Good BBQ location in June 2023. The second, D.B.A. Tacos and BBQ, opens in Clarkston this April.
“Basically, I’ve traded one large restaurant for two small ones,” Coggin says. The Chastain location is 1,500 square feet, while Clarkston’s comes in at 2,500 – the same size as the Virginia-Highland location’s second floor.
“This building’s not really made for barbecue because it’s on two floors,” Coggin says of the full-service restaurant. “When these other two came to fruition it was like, you know what? I get to build these exactly as I want ‘em and my lease is coming up for renewal. I can’t do all three by myself.”
D.B.A. Barbecue
Coggin adds that the scaled-down restaurants will also allow the D.B.A. team to expand its catering services. The Chastain and Virginia-Highlands location are cannibalizing each other, he says, because there’s so much customer overlap – especially when it comes to catering.
On Super Bowl Sunday, Coggin notes, D.B.A.’s catering operation served more customers than ever, but the work was equally divided between the two locations. “We did the exact same amount at 1,500 square feet as we did [in VaHi], and it was a lot of the same customers that picked up here last year,” he says.
While several of D.B.A.’s servers have no interest working in fast-casual, many already work for the…
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